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Displaying Empty Categories

Slightly easier when adding an Idea
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I've noticed that if no recent Ideas are in a particular Category, like "Fashion", then when the HalfBakery home page loads into a Browser, that category is not included on the page. Mostly, this is OK.

However, when you want to add an Idea, you might want to browse a category that isn't there, to see if the Idea already exists. It is simply very handy to click on the category heading, and see all the available subcategories at once (simpler than scrolling through them on the pick- list during the "Add Idea" process).

And when you click on the relevant sub-category, you can see what Ideas are already there. And if you still want to Add an Idea, that category is already selected on the pick- list (very nice!).

Sure, I know the Search feature can also be used to find out if an Idea already exists, but there is something about doing it the way I've described above that seems to me to be more usability- intuitive. So, please, even if a Category has no recent Ideas in it, can it still be displayed on the Home Page?

Thanks!

Vernon, Oct 31 2013

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       Did you not notice there's a list of all these major catagories across the bottom of the page? I always though that was somewhat redundant on the home page, but when a catagory has no recent ideas, it is still along the bottom of the page.
scad mientist, Oct 31 2013
  

       Now that you mention it, I have noticed on other occasions --the last of which was long-enough ago that I had completely forgotten about it when I posted the main text here!   

       I should mention that for me, this is a consequence of me modifying the Overview page- settings to display a "Recent 15" instead of a "Recent 3". So the overall page is taller, and that bottom-most line is mostly not seen, especially when, scanning for new postings, they are shown at the top of each category.   

       In other words, I rarely scroll to the bottom of the home page, where the list becomes visible.
Vernon, Oct 31 2013
  

       Workaround: In your modified view, you restrict the time rang from which to gather the ideas that should be displayed. You can lengthen that range. If you make it longer, it'll be less likely to run out of material without finding anything.
jutta, Oct 31 2013
  

       Thanks, [jutta]! Of course now I need to do even more scrolling to reach the most-recent items in the "vehicle" category, and therefore the chances are reduced even further, of noticing the horizontal list at the bottom of the page....   

       :)
Vernon, Nov 01 2013
  

       It occurs to me that a "simple" way to display an empty Category might be to have a default "first item in the Category", which is just a simple "(none recent enough)" message. But that is just a guess, of course, since I don't know how code is structured with respect to page-display decisions.
Vernon, Nov 03 2013
  
      
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